Subvention Funding for Publications

Effective: July 1, 2023
Revised: April 15, 2024

Related Links:

Supported Books
Accessing Payments for Services
Main Website
Seminar Chairs
Rapporteurs
Archive

The University Seminars reviews requests for subvention funding from seminar chairs, guest speakers, and rapporteurs who have presented their work in a seminar meeting. Subvention funding is provided to a publisher to facilitate the publication of a book or article. Requests can be submitted for work that has been accepted by a peer-reviewed academic publisher but is not yet published or in production.

Authors who have questions can email [email protected].

Subvention Funds Available

The Leonard Hastings Schoff and Suzanne Levick Schoff Memorial Fund for indexing, translating, technical editing, illustrating, or other publication costs of articles or books  produced under the auspices of The University Seminars in the fields of economics, sociology, psychology, penology, or the behavioral sciences. 

The Aaron Warner Fund supports the publication of articles or books that emerge from a University Seminar. These publications do not need to fall under a specific field. This fund is in honor of the social scientist Aaron Warner, who was Director of The University Seminars for decades, and whose devotion to music on the one hand, and to the world of physics at Columbia, on the other, carried him far beyond the social sciences. 

Eligibility and Application Guidelines

Our Subvention Funds are open to seminar chairs, guest speakers, regular participants, and rapporteurs whose books or articles:

  • are produced entirely as seminar projects (e.g., a conference or symposium) or were partly presented and discussed at a seminar meeting
     
  •  includes parts presented and discussed at a seminar meeting
     
  • are works clearly influenced by participation in a seminar group and meeting

The subvention funds may be used only for expenses related to publication such as indexing, translating, technical editing, illustrating, paying open access fees, or other publication costs. Subvention Funding cannot be used for administrative costs (i.e. staff salaries or office supplies). Applicants must provide a budget and must indicate what other sources of funding are available to them, noting additional sources of support. The University Seminars’ publication subventions are intended to help with costs that cannot be covered by publishers or by the requestors’  institutions.

The University Seminars Publication Committee considers the value of the proposed publication and its involvement with a seminar in comparison with other requests. Subvention funding requests are subject to the following priorities:

  • publications produced entirely as a seminar's project, e.g., a conference or symposium.   
     
  • publications by regular seminar participants, including chairs and co-chairs, of which some part was presented and discussed at a seminar meeting.       
     
  • publications that include materials presented and discussed by a speaker at a seminar meeting.
     
  • publications by a seminar's rapporteur where the work was clearly influenced by participation in the seminar. 

The University Seminars will provide up to $3,000 for publication expenses. The publication committee determines the amount to be funded.


 

Applications must be submitted via our Submittable portal and should include the following:

  1. A form in which to enter the submitter name, affiliation, email address, seminar number and name, date of seminar where material was presented, publication title, name of publisher, and expected publication date.
     
  2. Abstract (300 words maximum) describing the book or article.
     
  3. A list of other sources of support and the corresponding amounts.
     
  4. A letter of support from seminar chair.
     
  5. Acceptance letter or contract from publisher.
     
  6. Budget (one page) detailing costs with amounts specified by category. 

The Seminars office keeps an archive of supported publications. When making agreements with the publisher, authors should arrange to send two complimentary copies directly to the office.

Supported publications can be mailed directly to:

The University Seminars
Faculty House, 2nd Floor, MC 2302
64 Morningside Drive
New York, NY 10027

The funded author will acknowledge The University Seminars by using the following or similar format:

  • “The (editor/author) expresses appreciation to the [NAME OF FUND] at The University Seminars at Columbia University for their help in publication. Material in this work was presented to the seminar on [x].”
     
  • “The (editor)/(author) expresses appreciation to the [NAME OF FUND] at the University Seminars at Columbia University for their help in publication. The ideas presented have benefited from discussions in the University Seminar on [NAME OF SEMINAR.]"

Subvention funding is processed as Payments for Goods and Services to a vendor or supplier directly. The University Seminars policy prohibits reimbursements to the funded authors for goods and services provided by corporate or institutional entities. Subvention funds cannot be used for administrative costs (i.e. staff salaries or office supplies).

Funded authors must ask their vendors/suppliers to invoice The University Seminars office directly. For information on how to submit invoices to The University Seminars, see Payments for Goods and Services.

If funded authors encounter any difficulties in obtaining invoices from a vendor, please reach out to Gesenia Alvarez-Lazauskas ([email protected]) for assistance.